This thesis outlines the development of the doctrine of Purgatory in the theology of the nineteenth century theologian John Henry Newman (1801-1890). I trace the beginning of this development from 1816-1828 by identifying key theological themes from Newman’s early Evangelical writings on holiness, purification and conversion. After rejecting the Evangelicalism of his youth, Newman moved progressively towards High-Church Anglicanism from 1828 onward, and adopted the Anglican teaching of the 'intermediate state'. From 1830 he began to preach on this teaching by presenting it as an alternative to the 'depressing prospect' to the 'Romish' doctrine of Purgatory. However from 1837-1845 his views on Purgatory shifted considerably after studying the Tridentine decrees. In 1841 he claimed in Tract XC of Tracts for the Times that significant changes in the formulation of Article XXII of the XXXIX Articles meant that the Church of England did not reject the doctrine of Purgatory in its primitive form, but rather only the 'Romish' extremes of mediaeval theology which had corrupted her teaching. His claim that there was no disparity between what Trent taught on Purgatory and what the Church of England held in Article XXII caused widespread controversy among his contemporaries. In his early Roman Catholic years, from 1845-1853, he initially adopted the commonly held punitive model of Purgatory, but leaned increasingly towards an ameliorative understanding of the doctrine. By 1865 Newman had adumbrated a theology of Purgatory in The Dream of Gerontius, in which he showed how rather than being purged by material fire, the soul was purified by a singular and instantaneous experience of the holiness of God. I demonstrate how his theology of Purgatory in the Dream represents a significant contribution to a renewed understanding of the doctrine in Roman Catholic theology.

The establishment of a new concept of intercessory prayer, from an activity sought of the individual holy man to an occupation characterizing an entire monastic community, has recently received much attention; historians have shown that the function of intercession had become, by the Carolingian period, the pre-eminent feature of early medieval monasticism. The role of early medieval monasteries as powerhouses of prayer has encouraged scholarly attention along two particular areas of interest: intercession within the system of medieval patronage and gift exchange, and monastic ritual elaboration. Missing in the main historiographical approaches is discussion concerning the place of intercessory prayer within the monastic ideal. This study therefore asks the central question, ‘What was the relationship between the intercessory function of monasticism and the ascetic concern for moral conversion in the time of the reforms of Benedict of Aniane, c. 750-820?’ The writings of Carolingian monastic reformers demonstrate that the chief concern of the monk was to seek and find perfection in God; it is the argument of this study that the elaborate liturgical intercession which characterized early medieval monasticism was coherent with this goal. The Introduction sets out to establish the continuity of the ascetic pursuit in the Carolingian monastic ideal with earlier monasticism. We then order our investigation by: i) proposing that monastic liturgical organization was meant to address the fundamental problem of human sin which impedes fruitful prayer, and that the additions of intercessory liturgy made by Benedict of Aniane should be seen as part of his pastoral concern for the holiness of monks (Chapter 1); ii) situating the specific intercessory performances of monastic communities – namely, the intercessory Mass and the Divine Office – within Carolingian monastic theology (Chapters 2 and 3); iii) examining how the prayer directed toward two groups of beneficiaries of intercession – fellow monks and rulers – was grounded on the the ascetic goals of moral conversion and pilgrimage toward the celestial kingdom (Chapters 4 and 5); and iv) addressing the question of what role Carolingian monastics meant for their intercessory prayers to play in society at large, and the extent to which general social concern was a priority in monastic intercession (Chapter 6). This study provides a detailed description of the ascetic ideal required for understanding the formalized ritual and patronized prayer of monasteries within its proper sphere of monastic spirituality. I conclude in particular that the increasing importance of monastic intercession was related to a heightened emphasis in Carolingian spiritual thought on the teleological theme of transformation both individual and cosmic. The intercessory function of early medieval monasticism suggests an incorporation of the spiritual pilgrimage of the wider world into the monk’s own individual discipline, and tied the monk’s ascesis to the larger story of the conversion of the world to God.

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Thesis (D. Min.)--Catholic Theological Union at Chicago, 2002. / Abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 199-205).

The research is done within the diocese of Kanyakumari of the Church of South India. It examines the viability of the following training programmes to socio-political factors: the Church Workers Theological Training Programme, the Sunday School Programme, the Vacation Bible School Programme, the parish-based training programmes - for example retreats and workshops, the Women’s Fellowship Programme, the Christian Endeavour Programme, the Programme of Communication and Revival as well as that of the Student Christian Movement of India, and the Union of Evangelical Students of India. The practitioners of these programmes felt the need for guide-lines to transform their programmes to be more relevant to their socio-political contexts. Hence the present qualitative-oriented research was undertaken. The preliminary interviews and reading of the related literature enabled the researcher to identify some promoted theories, regarding the relationship between the socio-political factors and the programmes; this assisted him to set up a questionnaire for semistructured interviews. A sample for interviews was chosen with the help of the organisers of the programmes. A pilot study was conducted using the questionnaire, which led to the semi-structured interviews. The respondents narrated their experiences and reflections related to the socio-political factors. The information was organised, scrutinised, and the findings were recorded under six different pointers, which enabled the researcher to exhibit and explain the connections between the training programmes and the sociopolitical factors. Then the findings were evaluated, using the puzzle-solving method. Consequently, some guidelines were devised. These guide-lines indicate the limitations and the possibilities in making a socially-oriented training programme more vibrant and viable to its socio-political factors. Moreover, they highlight the possibilities for the existing pietistic-oriented programmes to become more relevant to the context. They also guide the practitioners to construct alternative approaches in training that are more relevant. The research is a small incentive to the emerging cooperation among the practitioners of the various training programmes in CSI Kanyakumari diocese. It will hopefully encourage them to join hands with people of other faiths and Non Governmental organisations in facilitating the social transformation in India today. Proposals are made for further related research work. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / (D.Th. (Practical Theology))

This thesis aims to provide a critique of the conclusions of Gershom Scholem regarding the potential for ‘Gnostic’-Kabbalistic filiation, and to establish whether, in light of the available evidence, Scholem’s arguments (which have yet, to my mind, to be sufficiently challenged) can be reasonably supported. I strive to offer an arguably clearer definition of the relevant taxonomic terms than is often presented in scholarly analyses of this question, whilst also arguing for the applicability to this debate of certain pertinent methodological approaches drawn from the wider school of comparative mythology. As such, I also attempt to establish a clear methodology for judging the probability of the genetic descent of one ‘system’ from another, viz. that perhaps the most logical method for assessing potential similarities between different ‘systems’ is to assume in the first instance that all correspondences identified are essentially coincidental, dismissing this assumption only if one can identify a high level of exactness in these comparisons (such as would render pure coincidence relatively improbable) and/or establish a secure chain of transmission between two sources, a chain which renders the transmission of ideas not only possible but indeed probable. Applying this methodology to certain potential routes by which second century ‘Gnostic’ thought might have been transmitted to the origin point of the medieval Kabbalah, I attempt both to demonstrate the wider applicability of such a methodology beyond the narrow question of ‘Gnostic’-Kabbalistic relationships, and to illustrate the serious difficulties with advancing any of these potential routes as a reliable source for the transmission of ‘Gnostic’ ideas to the Kabbalah. Rather, I argue that it may be more logically defensible, in the absence of clear source evidence, to ascribe such correspondences as are located purely to coincidence, albeit a coincidence perhaps somewhat tempered by certain observations regarding the relative ubiquity of certain concepts and modes of thought.

This dissertation provides an analysis of the attempts by John Henry Newman to account for the historical reality of doctrinal change within Christianity in the light of his lasting conviction that the idea of Christianity is fixed by reference to the dogmatic content of the deposit of faith. The existing literature on Newman is enormous and wide-ranging but this present work fills a notable gap by treating Newman at any particular point in the account as a person with an open future, where his present acts are not determined by later events, and where any apologetic intent has to be identified and accounted for by reference to the immediate matter under consideration and the contemporaneous evidence. The argument of the thesis is that Newman proposed a series of hypotheses to account for the apparent contradiction between change and continuity, that this series begins much earlier than is generally recognised and that the final hypothesis he was to propose, contained in An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine, (‘Essay’), provided a methodology of lasting theological value. The introduction establishes the centrality of the problem of change and continuity to Newman's theological work as an Anglican, its part in his conversion to Roman Catholicism and its contemporary relevance to Roman Catholic theology. It also surveys the major secondary literature relating to the question, with particular reference to those works published within the last fifty years. In the first main chapter, covering the period to the publication of his first major work, The Arians of the Fourth Century, in 1833, Newman's earliest awareness of the problem and first attempts to solve it are considered. The growing confidence of Newman's Tractarian period and his development of the notion of the Via Media form the second chapter and the collapse of that confidence, the subject matter of the third. The fourth chapter is concerned with the emergence of the theory of development and the writing and content of the Essay. The conclusion considers the legacy of the Essay as a tool in Newman’s theology and in the work of later theologians, finally suggesting that it may offer a useful methodological contribution to the contemporary Roman Catholic debate about hermeneutical approaches to the Second Vatican Council.

This thesis seeks to offer a clearer understanding of the Jesuit theologians and philosophers who comprised the group known the 'Fourvière Jesuits'. Led by Henri de Lubac and Jean Daniélou, they formed part of the nouvelle théologie, an influential French reform movement that flourished from the 1930s until its suppression in 1950. After identifying a certain lacuna in the secondary literature, this thesis attempts to remedy certain historical deficiencies by constructing a history both sensitive to the wider intellectual, political, economic, and cultural milieu of the French interwar crisis, and that establishes continuity with the Modernist crisis and the First World War. Chapter One examines the modern French avant-garde generations that have shaped intellectual and political thought in France, providing context for a historical narrative of the Fourvière Jesuits more sensitive to the wider influences of French culture. This historical narrative of the Fourvière Jesuits follows four stages. Chapter Two examines the influential older generations that flourished from 1893 to 1914, such as the Dreyfus generation, the generation of Catholic Modernists, and two generations of older Jesuits, which were instrumental in the Fourvière Jesuits' development. Chapter Three explores the influence of the First World War and the years of the 1920s, during which the Jesuits were in religious and intellectual formation, relying heavily on unpublished letters and documents from the Jesuits archives in Paris (Vanves). Chapter Four analyses the crises of the 1930s, the emergence of the Fourvière Jesuits' wider generation, and their participation in the intellectual thirst for revolution. Chapter Five examines the decade of the 1940s, which saw the rise to prominence of the members of the generation of 1930, who, thanks to their participation in the resistance, emerged from the Second World War, with significant influence on the postwar French intellectual milieu.

From its beginnings, Christianity has been fundamentally conditioned by the idea of repentance. However, while the institutional practice of repentance in the early Christian world has received much scholarly attention, relatively little exists which deals with the development and applications of the wider concept (of which its institutional aspect is only a part). The purpose of this dissertation is to provide both a re-assessment and a re-framing of this foundational concept of repentance in Christian late antiquity, with special reference to formative Greek monastic sources from the fifth to seventh centuries. Following a discussion of scholarship, terms, and methodology in chapter one, the question of defining repentance in the Greek patristic world is addressed in chapter two, looking first at the major sources for later approaches (the Septuagint, the New Testament, and Classical/Hellenistic texts). A significant re-appraisal of the dominant scholarly narrative of repentance in the early church will be offered in the following chapter, making way for a close study of the chosen monastic authors: Mark the Monk, Barsanuphius and John of Gaza, and John Climacus in turn. A threefold framework whereby their respective approaches to repentance can be understood in their integrity and diversity will be suggested, involving 1) initial or 'cognisant' repentance, in which the sinner recognizes his or her fallen state and turns it heavenward; 2) 'existential' repentance, which involves the living out of repentance as a way of life, governing all the Christian's actions and intentions; 3) 'Christ-like' repentance, which serves as the summit and ultimate goal of the Christian's personal repentance, whereby the loving and sacrificial 'repentance' of Christ for others and the world at large is assimilated and worked out in the Christian's own life. It will be argued that this framework provides a new and significant hermeneutical lens through which not simply the early Christian concept of repentance in itself can be better understood, but also through which the development of early Christian self-identity and self-perception, particularly in an ascetic context, can be gauged.

No figure of fourth-century Christianity seems to be at once so well known and so clouded in mystery as Hilary of Poitiers. His work as an historian provides invaluable knowledge of the mid-fourth century, and he was praised as a theologian throughout late antiquity. Today, however, discussions of his theology are founded upon less solid ground. This is largely due to methodological issues. Modern scholarship has often read Hilary through anachronistic historical and theological categories which have rendered his thought incomprehensible. Recent scholars have sought to overcome this and to reexamine Hilary within his own historical, polemical, and theological context. Much remains to be said, however, in regard to Hilary's actual theological contribution within these contextual parameters. This thesis contends that in all of Hilary's polemical and constructive argumentation in De Trinitate, which is essentially trinitarian, he is inherently and necessarily developing an anthropology. In all he says about the divine, he is saying as much about what it means to be human. This thesis therefore seeks to reenvision Hilary's overall theological project in terms of the continual, and for him necessary, anthropological corollary of trinitarian theology-to reframe it in terms of a 'trinitarian anthropology'. My contention is that the coherence of Hilary's thought depends upon his understanding of divine-human relations. I will demonstrate this through following Hilary's main lines of trinitarian argument, out of which flows his anthropological vision. These main lines of argument, namely, divine generation, divine infinity, divine unity, the divine image, and divine humanity, each unfold into a progressive picture of humanity from potentiality to perfection. This not only provides a new paradigm for understanding Hilary's own thought, but invites us to reexamine our approach to fourth-century theology entirely, as it disavows any reading of the trinitarian controversies in conceptual abstraction. Further, theological and religious anthropology are widely discussed in contemporary scholarship, and Hilary's profound exploration of divine-human relations, and what it means to be a human being as a result, has much to offer both historical and contemporary concerns.